Another week, another wrinkle to a Los Angeles Lakers season that has already been in the tub far too long. Perhaps it is time to bring back Bernie Bickerstaff, arguably the greatest coach in Lakers history. Speaking of arguments, it’s time for Throwin’ Elbows:

Make the trade, already

It was back in August, during the London Olympics, that Lakers forward Pau Gasol spoke about his relief to be staying in Los Angeles in the wake of the Dwight Howard trade—the discussions and rumors about the trade had included Gasol, and he was duly concerned. Six weeks later, with the team basking in the glow of the additions of Howard and point guard Steve Nash, Gasol stood amid a gaggle of media members talking about what a relief it would be to play this year without the specter of trade rumors looming over him.

Now, a month into the season, what do we have? The first inkling of Pau Gasol trade rumors, of course. Mike D’Antoni has sloughed off any notion of Gasol trade rumors, and certainly nothing is imminent, but it almost doesn’t matter at this point. Gasol trade discussions have been so frequent in the last few years that it is becoming obvious that the rumor mill may know something the Lakers and Gasol don’t seem to know—he would be better off elsewhere.

That is especially true since the Lakers decided to hire D’Antoni as their coach. Gasol has not had an easy time fitting in with D’Antoni’s offense, not with Howard the preferred low-post option. Gasol and D’Antoni have sniped back and forth in the media, but the numbers don’t lie: Gasol has averaged just 9.3 points in the Lakers’ last four games, three of which were losses. The team has looked better (slightly, at least) with Antawn Jamison on the floor.

There was some hope when the Lakers hired D’Antoni that Gasol could be effective in the high post, but—especially when Nash comes back—that probably will clog up the paint. Ideally, the Lakers would have that popular new breed of big man on hand, the stretch 4, a 3-point shooting power forward. There are not many of those around, and though Jamison has struggled from the perimeter this year, he is an average 3-point shooter for his career, making 34.5 percent.

If the Lakers can get a younger player in that mold in return for Gasol—think someone like Andrea Bargnani of the Toronto Raptors—they should. Even if there isn’t a perfect Gasol replacement out there, at least moving him for more perimeter help would boost a thin bench. It is time to put the Gasol trade rumors to rest not by publicly denying them, but by actually trading him.

The Bogut dilemma

It is understandable that Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut is a little frustrated by the moving timeline the team has put out as far as when he might return from his persistent ankle injury. That timeline has been based in the Warriors’ characterization of Bogut’s April ankle surgery as an arthroscopic procedure when, in fact, Bogut said it was a much more serious microfracture surgery. Before the season started, the Warriors all but guaranteed that Bogut would be their starting center on opening night, and though he played four of the team’s first five games, he has been shut down since.

On Nov. 9, the Warriors put out a release saying that Bogut would miss 7-10 games. Eleven days later, they put out another release saying Bogut would miss the next three games, but would return to practice and could play over the coming weekend. “That's not going to happen,” Bogut told reporters. “I can tell you that right now.”

The Warriors are in a sensitive spot. They gave up their leading scorer, Monta Ellis, as well as lottery pick Ekpe Udoh to acquire Bogut last spring, and having gotten no return on Bogut to date. To acknowledge that Bogut will be out for a while—possibly well into January or beyond—isn’t going to do much to gin up enthusiasm among a fan base that hasn’t had much to cheer for recently. Still, Bogut acknowledges that he feels the team’s unrealistic optimism about his health has caused some to question his toughness, and that’s not fair to him.

Witt’s end?

Putting coach Randy Wittman on the firing line is the least that the Washington Wizards could do to turn around a season that has already careened out of control. General manager Ernie Grunfeld actually did a decent enough job to bolster a roster that was too cluttered with knuckleheads and malcontents, adding veterans like Nene, Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor in the past year, while shuttling out underdeveloped youngsters Nick Young, JaVale McGee and Andray Blatche.

But why Grunfeld decided that Wittman would be the best option to coach this team is befuddling. Wittman is a solid assistant coach who had flopped in his previous two head coaching gigs, with Minnesota and Cleveland, where he compiled a record of 100-207 and had never topped 30 wins. He went 18-31 on an interim basis in Washington last year, and that actually raised his career winning percentage—and was enough to persuade Grunfeld to give him the job. The Wizards could have gone after a veteran coach last summer, or taken a chance like the Magic (Jacque Vaughn) and Bobcats (Mike Dunlap) did.

Instead, they chose to stick with Wittman, and though the team is missing injured point guard John Wall, there is no way they should be 0-12. Firing Wittman makes some sense, but then, hiring Wittman didn’t make much sense to begin with.

Telling it like it is

After three games in which the Cleveland Cavaliers put up impressive efforts on the road—close losses to the Magic, Heat and Grizzlies—without star point guard Kyrie Irving, Cleveland went home on Tuesday and laid an egg, losing to Phoenix by 13 points, a game in which they trailed by as many as 21. Byron Scott can live with his youthful and undermanned Cavs losing tight games, but he knows that a team like Cleveland should have the energy to give maximum effort at all times. That was not the case, and after the game, Scott let his team have it, saying, “Anderson Varejao was fantastic tonight. Everybody else sucked.”

Keep an eye on whether the Cavs respond to Scott’s verbal lashing when they play in Atlanta on Friday.